European Explorations and New World Beginnings

Timeline of some explorer events (more detail for some on second page)

Early Explorers Timeline: 
1000: Polynesians discover and settle in New Zealand
1001: Leif Ericson (Norse) was the first European to explore North America
1265: Marco Polo (Italian)begins his exploration of China and Asia
About 1300: European Renaissance begins
Early 14th century: Black death occurred with lots of famine
Early 1400's: France suffers defeats by England on their own land
Through 1453: France and England engage in Hundred Year War
1432: Early Portuguese navigators discovered the Azores
1445: Dinis Dias is the first Portuguese explorer & European to sail the west coast of Africa
1456: The Cape Verde islands are explored by Portuguese
1470: The Portuguese begin 15 years of African exploration
1488: Bartholomeu Dias of Portugal first European to sail from the Iberian Peninsula to the south of Africa. 
1492: The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus

1494: Treaty of Tordesillas signed
1496: First European settlement in the "New World" established at Hispaniola by Columbus
1497: John Cabot (Italian) and his son Sebastian were the first Europeans to discover Canada, landing  the coast of Newfoundland
1498: Vasco da Gama (Portuguese) sails around the Cape of Good Hope and reaches India
1499: Alonzo de Ojeda explores the mainland from the equator to Cape la Vela in Columbia into Venezuela 
 
1500s: Reformation spreads through Europe
1500: Vicente Pinzon and Juan Dias de Solis discovered Brazil before Cabral 
1500: Cabral credited with discovering Brazil
1500: Rodrigo de Bastidas and Juan de la Cosa discover Panama 
1501: Amerigo Vespucci explores the coast of South America
1508: Juan Dias de Solis explores Argentina
1510: Portuguese ships conquer Goa in India which begins the era of Portuguese dominance in southern Asia 
1513: Vasco Nunez de Balboa explores the Pacific coast of Panama and discovers Pacific Ocean
1513: Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida 
1513: Vasco Nunez de Balboa “discovers” the Pacific Ocean in Panama 
1513: Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean. 
1513: Juan Ponce de Leon searches for the Fountain of Youth in Florida 
1516: Juan Dias de Solis explores Uruguay 
1517: Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba explores Yucatan 
1518: Juan de Grijalava discovers Mexico 
1519: Ferdinand Magellan is the first to go around the world
1519: Hernando Cortez kidnaps Aztec Emperor Montezuma and loots the Aztec gold
1519: Alonzo de Pineda explors gulf Coast of America
1522: Gil Gonzales de Avila and Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba explores Nicaragua & Granada
1524: Giovanni Verrazano, an Italian explorer employed by France, sails along the 
coast of North America and discovers New York Bay
1524: Hernando Cortes conquers the Honduras
1524: Pedro de Alvarado conquers Guatemala and El Salvador 
1525: Spanish mapmaker Diego Ribeiro makes the first scientific charts of the Pacific
1526: Francisco Montejo conquers Yucatan 
1528: Panfilo de Narvaez conquers Cuba and explores Florida 
1528: Alvar Cabeza de Vaca explores Texas, Arizona and New Mexico 
1530: The Portuguese begin their colonization of Brazil
1531: Francisco Pizarro conquers Peru 
1532: Francisco Pizarro invades and loots the Incan Empire
1533: Sebastian de Benalcazar conquers Ecuador 
1534: Jacques Cartier discovers the Great Lakes and the the St. Lawrence River 
1536: Pedro de Mendoza explores Paraguay 
1538: First exploration of Bolivia 
1539: Hernando de Soto explores south-eastern North America, seeking gold
1540: Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explores south-western North America
1540: Discovery of the Grand Canyon by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas
1540: Francisco de Orellana (1511-1546) explores Amazon River
1541: Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado arrives in Kansas in search of gold
1542: Cabrillo explores and discovers the Californian coast
1542: Rey Lopez de Villalobos explored the Philippines
1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered San Diego Bay, California 
1549: A Portuguese expedition establishes a large colonial presence in Brazil
1556: Portuguese establish port of Macau on Chinese coast
1559: Tristan de Luna expedition explores North America
1562: John Hawkins sails to Africa - profits from the slave trade
1563: Francisco de Ibarra explores New Mexico 
1564: Spain begins conquest of the Philippines
1568: Oppressive Spanish rule leads to Dutch revolt, which lasts until 1648
1568: Spanish discover the Solomon Islands
1572: Spain establishes Manila
1576:The Englishman Sir Martin Frobisher begins three attempts to find the Northwest Passage and gold sailing to Baffin Bay and into the Hudson Strait 
1577: Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the world - December 13 1577 to September 26 1580
1584: Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe (both in the service of Sir Walter Raleigh) explore the coast of North Carolina
1585: Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the Roanoke colony 
1593: Sir Richard Hawkins travels to the South Pacific
1595: Sir Walter Raleigh seeks golden city of El Dorado in South America
1598: Juan de Archuleta explores Colorado

1600's: 
War raged between the Catholics Huguenots in France
1603-1616Samuel de Champlain (French) explored eastern coast of North America and the coast of the St. Lawrence River to Lake Huron-Reached Lake Champlain
1608: Champlain founds a fur-trading post near present-day Quebec 1609-1611: Henry Hudson (English) explored Hudson Bay, Hudson River, and Hudson Strait
1672: Father Marquette and Louis Joliet (French) explored Northern  Mississippi River
1682: Robert LaSalle (French) traveled to the mouth of the Mississippi River and claimed it for France